A Few More Plums

Deputy Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration

Head of the Office of Sea Grants of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce

Confidential Assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Tourism

Deputy Chief Investigator and Security Officer of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Maritime Affairs

Alternate Federal Member of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission

Less than a week after President Ford woke up to find that he had lost not only his voice but the presidency, his former colleagues in the Congress came out with a book that made marked men of all his Republican lieutenants.

The book, compiled by the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service and formally entitled "Policy and Supporting Position," lists about 2500 government jobs that do not come under Civil Service, and are filled by presidential appointment. Known in Washington as "The Plum Book," it was an instant best seller.

For students of bureaucracy and hot-shot Democrats out to get hands-on experience at making public policy, the Plum Book is a mother lode of informative tidbits and dicey job prospects.

Not only does the Plum Book list the positions up for grabs, but it includes the current desk-occupiers and the salaries that they will soon be missing.

From Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger '50 and Secretary of Commerce Elliot A. Richardson '43--who weigh in at $66,000 per year--to Olga C. Cumberland, the Private Secretary to the Director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs ($15,000 to $20,000 range of level G.S. 10) the Plum Book has them all.

For giving free advice to the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, for example, you serve without pay if you have another government job like the Governor of Indiana. If, however, you serve as one of the "Private Citizen" members of the commission, you can get "$50 p.d.I," which means "$50 per day, Intermittent, when actually employed." Of course, if you really want to work, you should apply for one of the commission's staff jobs, such as the one John P. Ross now holds (at about $30,000 to $35,000 per year) as the "Senior Academic Resident in Public Finance."

Although Widener and Littauer do not yet have copies of the book, sources say a few privately and well-thumbed copies of this Whole Earth Catalogue of the bureaucracy are circulating among select members of the Faculty.

If by some chance the President-elect himself begins browsing through the Plum Book, he may allow himself a smile of irony. Just inside the title page is a list of the members of the committee that published the book, and its vice-chairman is none other than Rep. Morris K. Udall (D-Ariz.). Even on his own committee, it seems he finished second this year.